The Batman was a great comic book adaptation, that brought a grim sense of realism to the city of Gotham. And The Riddler played a big part in this, so who is going to trump that? The Joker of course. And we think we already have our actor for the iconic role.
The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves, showed a dark and gritty Gotham, where gangsters run rampant and violence is the native language. The police are incompetent and corrupt and politicians are just puppets for wealthy criminals. So just like modern day USA then. The sequel will probably be pretty much the same, I hope.
So what does this sh*thole of a town need more than anything else? Right, a little laughter and fun. Too bad, it's probably going to get the Joker's interpretation of the latter.
Twice, actually. We get the standalone Joker sequel too:
The character has already been introduced in the first film. Towards the end of The Batman, we can see The Riddler in his cell in Arkham, talking to the person in the cell next to him. An ugly fella with a lovely laugh. Obvious who that is, right?
The Batman: First Look At The Joker
Turns out that was the Joker, and guess what, he originally had a whole scene in the movie. Almost two months after the movie hit theaters, they released that scene separately on the official Warner Bros. YouTube channel. And let me tell you, it's glorious! Here, watch it for yourself:
If you're wondering, the actor is Barry Keoghan. He appeared in other movies like The Green Knight, Eternals and Dunkirk. In an Interview with GQ, he voiced his interest to play the Joker again. If that will be in the Batman 2 or another sequel, we don't know. Originally, Keoghan wanted to play the Riddler, which I could definitely see him do perfectly fine, but the part was already decided upon, so now he is the Joker.
In the one scene, he played a nasty Joker though, so I won't complain. And to be honest, I hope we see him make his return in The Batman 2.